Duleep Trophy: Revenge on mind as South run into West

Vihari's men will look to get the better of the defending champs.

The inevitability of it doesn’t seem to have taken the intensity off it, meaning the Duleep Trophy final between South Zone and West Zone has the ingredients for an intriguing contest.

Of course, everyone’s trying to outdo everybody else in their bid to keep the selectors - there are quite a few of those Indian team recruits frequenting Bengaluru these days - interested, but playing on sides which have some of the best talents in the country all at once, can be about the camaraderie and fun too.

That came through during the semifinals, especially in the case of South as they were pushed to the edge by a resilient North Zone before Hanuma Vihari and Co managed to bell the cat in the dying moments on the fourth day at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.

West spent most of their time wandering - conversing casually - the spacious dressing rooms and taking in the open vistas at Alur as the rain came down in haste and rendered most days futile.

Luckily, given how high the chance of rain are over the next few days, it’s good then that the final is being held at the Chinnaswamy stadium where the sub-air system improves chances of play significantly.

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With these two teams on deck, we need all the overs we can get from the five-day affair.

West is the most successful team in the tournament with 19 titles, while South have fared about as well with 14 crowns. In fact, South were hammered into submission by West in the previous edition, so Vihari’s men will have a chip on their shoulder, but it won’t be easy.

Any team which has the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav and Sarfaraz Khan is going to be nothing short of brilliant, and West is in this regard. While they look underprepared with their bowling unit, they have enough muscle with the bat to wipe the floor with South.

South, in this regard, are far more rounded. They don't have a star cast, but each of these players has been fairly remarkable in first-class cricket. Also, South have four players from Karnataka, who will provide them with plenty of inputs regarding the weather and the pitch.

“Having Mayank (Agarwal), (R) Samarth, (Vidwath) Kaverappa and Vyshak (Vijaykumar) is a blessing because they know exactly what we need to do here to win,” said Vihari. “We take their inputs very seriously. Also, it’s so easy to captain Kaverappa and Vyshak, they always know what to do and they are very capable of execution.”

Besides a tidy batting line-up, South also possess a stringent pace duo in Kaverappa and Vyshak. It’s an alliance which has worked well for Karnataka the last domestic season, and their expertise as a tandem helped South in the semifinals against North too.

Should South’s batters practice conviction instead of apprehension, they will be in better stead. Should West’s batters practice caution instead of a full-throttle push, they will be in better stead.

And in the midst of all this, Pujara will be going through the motions for he doesn’t take being snubbed by the Indian selectors lightly, least of all when he has only so many years left in the tank.

Teams (from): South Zone: Hanuma Vihari (captain), Mayank Agarwal (vice-captain), Ricky Bhui (wk), R Samarth, Washington Sundar, Sachin Baby, Sai Kishore, V Kaverappa, Vyshak Vijaykumar, V Koushik, N Jagadeesan, KV Sasikanth, Darshan Misal, N Tilak Varma.

West Zone: Priyank Panchal (captain), Cheteshwar Pujara, Suryakumar Yadav, Harvik Desai (wk), Prithvi Shaw, Het Patel (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Arpit Vasavada, Atit Seth, Shams Mulani, Kedar Jadhav, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande, Chintan Gaja, Arzan Nagwaswalla.